Conference Paper Tudela HOMESTAY

Conference Paper Tudela, Cebu

Brief LGU Profile

The Municipality of Tudela is one of the four municipalities comprising the Camotes

group of islands. It is a coastal town located, 48 nautical miles from Cebu City across the

northeastern part of Cebu Province. By political subdivision it belongs to the 5 th Congressional

District of Cebu. Tudela is a 5 th class municipality with eleven (11) barangays namely,

Buenavista, Calmante, Daan Secante, General, McArthur, Northern Poblacion, Puertobello,

Southern Poblacion, Puertobello, Santander, Secante Bag-o, and Villahermosa.

Tudela has a total land area of ______________ hectares with an LGU income of

________________. As of 2007 Census, Tudela has a population of 11,266 and 2,560

households. Its local dialect is Cebuano which is spoken all over the town. The Roman

Catholic religion is dominant in the town. Its annual town fiesta falls on December 8 in honor of

its patroness, the Immaculate Conception.

Economic activities of the residents are mostly fishing and farming. Its farm products

include vegetables, corn, rice, coconut, banana and rootcrops. Others engaged into small time

business and some are government employees such as public school teachers and municipal

employees. Our power source is the Camotes Electric Cooperative (CELCO). We have our

waterworks system that supplies our households.

The town can be reached from mainland Cebu through sea via Poro Port, Puertobello

Port, San Francisco and Consuelo Port, San Francisco. It can also be reached from Leyte

through sea via Hagotapay-Puertobello Port, Tudela. It's a 3-hour ride by bus from SM City-

Cebu to Danao City on board a roro type boat docking at Consuelo Port, San Francisco passing

through the municipalities of San Francisco and Poro. It also a 2-hour ride by a fastcraft from

Pier 1, Cebu City to Poro Port and a 15-min motorcycle ride from Poro to Tudela.. It's also a 3-

hour ride via Oano wharf to Poro Port and a 15-min motorcycle ride form Poro to Tudela..

Its major tourist attraction is the Bukilat Cave at Brgy McArthur with its stalactites and

stalagmites. There are also fish sanctuaries at Brgy Villahermosa and Brgy Puertobello taken

cared by the LGU and Brgys Villahermosa and Puertobello. Other attractions include century

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old trees, the Busay Falls at Brgy General and the Buenavista heights. There are other caves

which needs to be developed.

Executive Summary

Rationale

Good governance has always been the desire of the present administration of the

Municipality of Tudela under the leadership of Hon Erwin P Yu, the municipal mayor. Our plans

and programs are geared towards this end. One of these is the adoption of the eGWEN

program of the provincial government in partnership with Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.

(RAFI). For us, the program focuses on responsible governance, performing tasks beyond

mandates being public servants. Effective and efficient governance in terms of the delivery of

basic services, conservation and preservation of culture and heritage, environmental

management and ecotourism development among others, are the very core of the program with

which the Municipality of Tudela, its officials and employees are aiming at.

The municipal government of Tudela not only believes in the eGWEN OUR CEBU

philosophy but also advocates its vision to each and every Tudelanian making Tudela a healthy

place to live, work and play politically, economically, productively and enthusiastically.

The first step has already been done. We have already adopted and supported the

eGWEN OUR CEBU Program and implemented them to our barangays through purok

developmment and barangay development. With this inplace, we are ready to further develop

our ecotourism program. To be fully equipped of possible influx of tourists, we have partnered

with the provincial government and UC students for our Homestay Program in as much as there

are no hotels in our LGU. The concept of this program is to use private homes to

accommodate guests at reasonable prices.

Homestay Program is not new to the LGU. It has been started way back in the early

1990s during the term of Ex-Mayor Demetrio P Granada. Administrations come and go and the

program altogether faded until now when Mayor Erwin P Yu entered into a partnership with the

provincial government and UC and come up with a study to assist us in our Homestay Program.

We have already come up with the first part, there is already an output from the UC students,

problems are identified and strategies are recommended to enhance the program and the

tourism industry of the LGU.. There are already 20 homeowners identified who are willing to

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open their houses to the guests. They already formed an association known as “Balai sa

Tudela”.

Aims and Objectives

As Tudela adopts the Homestay Program the following aims and objectives are set:

Tudela aims to foster community participation and cooperation;

It aims to upgrade homeowners and have them DOT accredited;;

It aims to enhance and sustain the Homestay Program of Tudela;

It aims to create, develop and promote tourist attractions putting Tudela an

ecotourism destination;

Above all, it aims to institutionalize good governance in every Tudelanian by providing a transparent, honest and genuine public service;

Strategies and Approaches

The strategies and approaches we undertake is a step-by-step process to which the

community gradually adopts and integrates them into their own system.

Identify homeowners willing to adopt the homestay program

Organize willing homeowners and coordinate closely with them through a homestay program coordinator of the LGU

Assist the Homeowners group to be DOT-accredited for them to avail of a grant from DOT to upgrade their technical knowhow and their accomodations

Improve the ecotourist shops and attractions

Put up a zipline coursing from General to Santander

Action Plan

Activity Strategy of Implementation

Output Indicator

Time Frame

Responsible Persons

Resources Remarks

1 MOU

2 FS

3 DOT GRANT

4 Sustenable

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Homestay Program

Conclusions and Recommendations

In my capacity as the Local Chief Executive of the Municipality of Tudela, the programs

should be sustained and institutionalized. Humbly, the following are our recommendations,

viz-a-viz;

Widen the scope in measuring the Local Government Unit’s (LGU’s) human

resource sector by capacitating its Officials and employees.

Provision of financial and technical assistance to the emerging programs and

projects of the LGU.

Recognition to innovative programs, projects and activities undertaken by the

Local Government Unit (LGU).

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Documents

Conference Paper Tudela HOMESTAY